Looking for reputable and reasonable builders for apartment building in Melbourne (VIC)

The feasibility pricing from this developer stacked up not so good against my GRV
There is a good 15% profit for the developer but my residual land value figure was not as high as I expected it to be (The price I want to sell at if I just want to sell the land and permits)

Sydney developers are used to 7% of GRV but in Melbourne they expect 15% of GRV
There's 900k cost for the basement carpark (which could very well be true), marketing, selling and legal costs of 250k, there's other unspecified development costs of 350k (not itemized)
And he'done a broad brush estimate of the construction cost by using the lazy man way of plucking a number off Rawlinsons. So all the numbers have to be checked against my architect who is himself a builder. My architect estimated construction cost previously to be 3.6 million.

The developer told me construction costs have come way down. He develops himself, mainly townhouses though I think he did a 3-4 storey apartment once before. He didn't explain exactly why they've come down. I've asked him is it because of the pre-fab stuff that's coming from China. He says the pre-fab stuff from China have QC problems too and don't meet Australian specs and standards a lot of the times

 

interesting - I've been given the OK to remove all my visitor parking as well. Semi recess is more to minimize the cost as well to ensure that there is no reverse living and giving direct access from the carpark lot to their unit. Council had no concerns on noise but more on traffic management. mine is not an apartment building but townhouses. I have had similar requirements too though without a lift. have you gone to commercial RE agents to see what they think? would be keen to see which area your dev is in.

 

Ok so you might sell with permits and want to make sure of a cost so that you can market it as such? Or want to bed down how much it might cost you in case you decide to do it yourself?
A quantity survey or estimating service might be the way to go. I have these guys in my Linkedin but I've not used them so can't give a recommendation as to how good their services are but it might be what you need Blulevel Estimating | New Build & Renovations Australia

 

Once built, internal fencing, exclusive use by-laws & s96 to create private courtyards - more $$$

 

@Beanie Girl
Where abouts is the development?

Basement will vary depending on if you go through union builder or not (I would suspect on a smaller site you definately will not)

Cost for the basement should be around $900-$1100psqm for the basement (depending on how many levels)

Judging from your previous calcs, 825sqm of basement should cost between $750-$900k

If you need stackers, you'll have to add cost, approx 10-15k each. Basement cost MAY go up just a tiny bit in those areas as well as the depth of the basement will have to be increased

 

Hi @LukeR , thanks for replying to this thread.
Yes, only 1 level of basement, 5-6 stackers.

In the area houses are now fetching 850K as a norm now. It' not unusual to find 900-950k and 1,150,000k for houses with land component, usually 650-850 sq m

Townhouses in the area - 660,000 for a new double storey 2 bedroom
I've seen 740,000 for new 3-4 bedroom townhouses
hard to find the 550k townhouses that were common just a year ago
Prices for both houses and townhouses just keep going up

So the apartment development units should provide a more affordable entry for a wide range of people. I think we are the first apartment development on completely residential land (not mixed use or on main roads) for 9-10 suburbs around us. There just isn't anything like it. Agents are starting to call it a boutique development, one of a kind.

The recreational facilities surrounding the development is unique and pretty terrific - 3 real turf lawn bowls club, 6 tennis courts directly at the back of the development, Huge green reserve on the western elevation that caters for cricket and footy complete with 3 cricket practice cages and house for changeroom. The western elevation will have views that will never be built out. Twinkling lights of the city will face one elevation as well. Large Golf club a few street away. Small local activity with childcare facilities, fish and chips shop and hairdresser/barber.

There's basket ball courts in the reserve, BBQ facilities, public fitness equipment and a children's playground. You can even grab a middy or schooner or draft light or dark beer from the tap or your choice of bottled beers, some wine selection from the Bowls club from morning to 5pm if you want to have a quiet chat with your friends. They have a liquor licence and a function room that's sometimes rented out for a birthday party or Christmas or Australia Day celebrations. So you can party with your friends in your personal function, get a little inebriated and not worry about driving home. A few steps and you're home. Plenty of schools in the area - primary and secondary.

Supermarket coming up 100m from the development. Modern cafe 50m away. 1.2km from a Major Activity Centre. Zone 1 train station - just walk down the road.

What I would like to know is how building costs are calculated. I'm getting the XXX dollar per sqm
to like 150-160k per apartment method.

I keep hearing from one developer/agent that construction prices have come down. Is it due to pre-fab, use of non-unionised labour. Not sure if its true construction prices have come down a fair bit.

Any help in trying to calculate an accurate estimate of building costs would be much appreciated, Luke. Many thanks.

 

What about semi basement? Would it be half the price of a full basement?

 

Hi @Starlite, yes, a semi-basement, I heard would be much cheaper than a full basement as you excavate less.
But our permit says full basement, not sure how Council would view an amendment application for a semi-basement but they would insist on an acoustic engineers to measure the noise from the parking and car stackers.
A full basement - VCAT accepts that no noise can be heard from a full basement that would disturb the residents

A lot of developers, we heard, if we were to sell the permits and plans would seriously explore a semi-basement. In fact, a lot of them, would try to not have a basement carpark at all.

 

Hi

Wise developers.

Regards,

alicudi

 

By the way, as we put in the Council application before the Better Apartment Guidelines came out on 27 Mar 2017.

So our development is not subject to any Better Apartment Guidelines which is up to Council's discretion to apply. For instance, 2.4 heights of the apartments rather than the suggested 2.7m height.

No need to make 50% of the dwellings accessible although 5 apartments in our development are accessible at the moment.

No need to have 1.8-2.4 metre wide balconies. At the moment the width of the balconies is 1.6m which is Pre-Better Apartment Building Guidelines. We have met Rescode in every respect and exceeded many Rescode objectives.

We also have 38% garden space to plant 22 canopy trees, shrubs and smaller plants (including planter boxes) which exceeds the mandatory 35% garden space for sites above 650 q m.

Table D8 under the Better Apartment Guidelines suggests 3.3m width and 10qm for 1 bedroom apartments and 3.6m width and 12 sqm for 2 or more bedroom apartments.

I believe our room sizes exceeds these guidelines anyway and the living rooms are large. But we are not subject to the mathematical computation for minimum rooms sizes for 1.2 and 3 bedrooms apartments.

Council, Councillors and VCAT all acknowledge that the internal amenity of the apartments are very good.

 

Yeah I wonder how much cheaper? Glad to read your thread as I am doing a semi basement permit atm. Is your site rather flat? How much is the drop off? That I am sure will affect the cost as well. I think it’s worth while exploring semi basement option if it’s significantly cheaper as that will be reflected on your sales price.

 

Site is very flat, Flat as a pancake
Maybe a very small dip at the south-western or south eastern corner (I can't remember which)
which won't affect the carpark excavation as those corners would be reserved for open garden space and tree planting.

 

semi basements are good for townhouses - as it midway between a full basement (in terms of cost) and you do not lose the ability for the lounge living areas to be without access to the courtyard. if you go along the whole of dodds st and well st in southbank - you will see the semi basement nearly all over the whole road - of apartments (3 level). I personally have previously owned a lot of apartments in the past though thinking back now none of them had a basement - but that would be due to the ability to go higher.

You will see a lot of townhouses in Doncaster where they take the advantage of the slopes by have a basement.

as for stackers - I have done 2 for 2 apartments on top of shoplots on ground - though from what I heard now is that it seems to have issues - as it is a mechanical thing, sometimes it gets stuck and requires regular maintenance similar to lifts- noise wise seems ok but it is commercial area . Asian buyers esp do not like stackers and will always prefer a carpark spot

But for ones would want to stack more onto the block while having garden access to their units etc, basements or semi basement is the only way to go unfortunately.

 

3D render of Eastern Elevation

 

3D render of front of Apartment Building

 

Looks really good - @Beanie Girl the 3Ds. is it three or four storeys?

 

Hi @melbournian I wanted 4 storey but had to cut it down to 3 storey

 

it's in the GRZ instead of RGZ?

 

It was Residential Zone 1 when first put in the DA/planning permit so no height limit - so 4 storeys
but subsequently it changed to GRZ - 9 metres discretionary for second DA/planning permit
so we came under transitional provisions - no height limit
but whilst waiting during the evaluation stage last year - GRZ zones all over Melbourne had a mandatory 11 m height limit unless the schedule to the zone stated otherwise (differs from Council to Council)
But to ensure we got the permit, played it safe and made it 3 storey

 

Looks great.

Have you explored matte black metal battens for the fencing/balcony as opposed to the yellow /gold material and opaque windows?

I find that opaque windows look horrible after being built - not always clean & when people put items behind it and you can see faint shapes.

Aluminium Battens | Woodform